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With only a week before the big rigs carrying the IZOD IndyCar series teams arrive for the first of back-to-back stops in Toronto and Edmonton, one has to legitimately question the future of big-time, open-wheel racing in this country outside of the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

If you listen to the naysayers — and this column has had some real concerns about IndyCar’s viability — what we could be seeing over the next three weeks is an inglorious end to the single seaters north of the 49th parallel.

On the other side of the coin, Toronto will get a second chance to re-invent the wildly successful Honda Indy Toronto next week and will do so with the added impetus of having lured the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series to headline the Saturday show. That alone should do wonders to bring back the big crowds that once jammed the Exhibition Place temporary street course.

Out in Edmonton there has never been a question about fan support — it has always been there — but of a constant drain of millions of dollars out of city coffers to prop the race up.

But if you pay attention to the new IndyCar boss — former Pro Bull Riding CEO Randy Bernard — the future in Toronto and Edmonton is not only solid, but just a start of a renewed effort to add a couple for more races here.

Bernard is on he record as having said he’s met with promoters in Quebec City about a race there and has had less formal talks about a race in Calgary.

And rumours that the folks that promote the Canadian GP and the NASCAR Nationwide NAPA 200 in Montreal are negotiating with Edmonton race promoters to take over running that show in 2011 bode well for that kind of optimism.

Super bikes

Fresh from a big show at Calgary’s Race City track, the Parts Canada Superbike Championship rides into Mosport International Raceway this weekend. Practice and qualifying are scheduled for Friday with Round 4 racing on Saturday and

Round 5 on Sunday.

Headlining the weekend is the Superbike class, as defending champion Jordan Szoke of Brantford, Ont., attempts to win a record seventh Superbikecrown and his fifth in a row. He is off to a great start, winning both rounds in Calgary.

Finish lines

Just wondering if the obvious improvement this season of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets piloted by Dale Earnhardt Jr. is related to the equally dramatic drop in performance from garagemate Mark Martin in the No. 5 HMS Chevrolets. It seems ever since Rick Hendrick announced that Kasey Kahne would take over the No. 5 team in 2012 — at the end of Martin’s contract — Martin has suffered from so-so finishes. It would not surprise anyone to see Martin opt out of his final year at HMS to allow Kahne to jump into that ride ... The master of the three-ring circus knows as Formula One — Bernie Ecclestone —is at it again. This time he’s trying to breathe life into a thrice-dead plan to hold a Grand Prix race in New York City. This despite almost universal opposition to the idea from city and state politicians. But Ecclestone is still gun-ho on the idea. “It’s happening,” he told Autosports magazine. “We are talking to them and trying to do our best. Let’s see what happens.” ... Jeff Gordon will make his 600th NASCAR Sprint Cup start Saturday at Chicagoland. Gordon is sixth on the all-time win list with 82 victories and fourth in all-time poles with 68 and has collected 272 top-fives and 371 top-10s.